Erdogan gets a hero’s welcome

ANKARA: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday stood by what he said during a heated debate with Israel’s president as the Jewish state sought to calm tempers, saying bilateral ties would recover.

Erdogan received a hero’s welcome home and Hamas and Islamic Jihad hailed his “courageous stand” after he walked out of the debate on Gaza at the World Economic Forum at Davos following a clash with Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Peres had launched a fiery defense of his country’s offensive in Gaza over the past month, and with a raised voice and pointed finger, questioned what Erdogan would do if rockets were to be fired at Istanbul every night.

“President Peres you are older than me and your voice is very loud. The reason for you raising your voice is the psychology of guilt. I will not raise my voice that much, you should know that. When it comes to killing, you know very well how to kill. I know very well how you hit and killed children on the beaches,” he said during the panel discussion, which also included United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Arab League chief Amr Moussa. “The death of civilians cannot be seen as a simple work accident.”

Erdogan later stressed that he had not targeted Peres personally or the people of Israel. “My reaction (walkout) was to the moderation,” he said, explaining that Peres had been given 25 minutes by the moderator to talk while the others on the panel were given less time. The moderator, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, had given him a minute to reply, then asked him to finish, saying that people needed to go to dinner.

On his return to Istanbul, Erdogan told a cheering crowd: “We will never allow anyone to show disrespect to the prime minister of Turkey.”

Thousands of people gathered at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport to greet Erdogan, waving Turkish and Palestinian flags and chanting “Turkey is proud of you.”

Turkish President Abdullah Gul said: “Nobody should expect the prime minister of Turkey to swallow a disrespectful act. He gave the necessary response.”

Peres said yesterday he hoped relations with Turkey would not be affected by the heated exchange and added he had spoken to Erdogan by telephone after the debate.

“We don’t want conflict with Turkey. We are in a conflict with the Palestinians,” Peres told reporters in Davos.

“I called him up and said, ‘Yes, I do not see the matter as personal ... and the relations can remain as they are’,” Peres said. “My respect for him didn’t change. We had an exchange of views.” Some Turkish newspapers reported that Peres apologized to Erdogan. Peres spokeswoman Ayelet Frisch denied that.

The Turkish military indicated its ties with Israel would not immediately change.

“The rule is to act according to national interests in bilateral military relations with all countries,” Brig. Gen. Metin Gurak, the military spokesman, said in response to a question on the possibility of cutting military ties.

Red and white Turkish flags flapped next to green Hamas banners at rallies throughout Gaza City yesterday, as well as the ruins of a bombed-out mosque in the Gaza refugee camp of Jabaliya. About 5,000 Hamas supporters rallied in front of the ruined Palestinian Parliament, some waving Turkish flags and carrying pictures of Erdogan.

Source : ArabNews

UN chief visits Gaza, urges probe

Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the United Nations, has demanded a "full investigation" into Israel's bombing of a UN compound in Gaza City.

Speaking during an official visit to the Palestinian enclave on Tuesday, he condemned the attack on the UN complex as "outrageous" and "totally unacceptable".

"It is particularly significant for a secretary-general of the UN to stand in front of this bomb site of the UN compound," he said.

"I am just appalled and not able to describe how I am feeling having seen this ... it's an outrageous and totally unacceptable attack against the UN. I have protested many times, and I protest again in the strongest terms."

Ban called for a "full investigation" into the incident to make those responsible for the attack "accountable".

He also announced he was sending a high-level delegation to oversee humanitarian support for Gazans and assist with the rebuilding effort following Israel's three-week offensive.

Ban is the highest-ranking official to visit Gaza since Israel and Hamas declared separate, unilateral ceasefires on Sunday.

'Shocking' devastation

Ban stressed "the UN and the international community will support and help you [Gazans] to overcome" the devastation, which he described as "shocking and alarming".

While Ban reiterated his condemnation of Israel's "excessive use of force", he was careful to underline that he believes rocket attacks on Israel by Gazan fighters are also "unacceptable".
Israel had said the aim of its operations in Gaza was to cripple Hamas's ability to launch rockets into the south of the country.

Ban urged Palestinians factions to unite to allow the international community, including the UN, to help broker a lasting peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

However, while offering to do "all [he] can as secretary-general of the UN to help in this time of need", Ban is not expected to meet Hamas officials during this visit.

Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, said because much of the international community, including the US and the European Union, regard Hamas as a "terrorist organisation", it would be political difficult for the UN chief to hold direct talks with Hamas officials.

Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 which were internationally recognised as being both fair and free.

Rebuilding Gaza's devastated infrastructure is expected to cost billions of US dollars.

Without supplies

John Holmes, the UN humanitarian chief, says hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency aid supplies will be needed for the people of Gaza.

Although water supplies were restored to many Gazan homes as of Sunday, 400,000 were still without running water, Holmes said.
Electricity in Gaza is available for less than half the day and around 100,000 people have been left homeless by the war.

Scores of bodies have been discovered in the rubble of destroyed buildings since both sides declared unilateral ceasefires on Sunday.

Palestinians returning to their neighbourhoods have begun to unearth the true scale of destruction.

Mohyeldin reported that the World Health Organisation had issued a warning of an outbreak of disease as weeks-old bodies remain unburied and sewage continues to flow in many areas because of the destruction of Gaza's infrastructure.

The deposed Hamas-led government in Gaza estimates that more than 5,000 buildings were completely destroyed and another 20,000 damaged or partially destroyed in the fighting.

Despite the three-week Israeli onslaught that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians and destroyed thousands of buildings, Hamas and other Palestinian factions have claimed victory in the fighting.

Following his visit to Gaza, the UN chief also visited the southern Israeli town of Sderot - one of the main targets for Palestinian rocket-launching squads based in Gaza.

Ban said he was "totally committed to Israel securing its rightful place as a nation within secure and recognised borders" and called for the current ceasefires to be turned into a durable truce "respected fully by all parties concerned".

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

HRW: Israeli Should Allow Humanitarian Groups Into Gaza

JERUSALEM, January 14, 2009 (WAFA)- Israel should immediately allow humanitarian groups broad access to Gaza and the evacuation of the wounded to alleviate the suffering of the civilian population,Human Rights Watch said in a report released, Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch also urged the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is to visit Israel on January 15, to take urgent steps to help alleviate the suffering of Gazan civilians.

Nineteen months of a highly restrictive blockade and two weeks of intense military operations have left Gazans in desperate need of food, water, electricity, and sanitation. Medical care is woefully inadequate to deal with the thousands wounded in the fighting. Civilians have nowhere to flee the aerial and ground attacks engulfing the Strip.

Human Rights Watch said that United Nations agencies have only been able to reach a small portion of those dependent on aid, which includes more than 80 percent of the population, since the Israeli offensive began on December 27, 2008. The electricity supply has slightly improved in recent days but remains low, and in some places open sewage is spilling into the streets. The ongoing fighting is preventing many families from leaving their homes to purchase food or obtain food aid. Children, who make up 56 percent of Gaza's residents, are especially vulnerable.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israeli attacks in Gaza had killed at least 997 Palestinians and wounded another 4525. More than 311 children and 100 women are among the dead; more than 1,459 children and 625 women had been wounded. According to the UN, more than 40% of the dead and 50% of the wounded are women and children.

'Gaza was in the midst of a humanitarian crisis even before this fighting started due to Israel's unlawful blockade, aided by Egypt's cooperation in keeping its border with Gaza closed,' said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch 'And now it is facing a catastrophe.'

The wounded are getting only rudimentary care from facilities that lack equipment, material and personnel. Hospitals have been running full-time on generators since December 30, when Gaza's only power plant stopped functioning, and in some hospitals, generator fuel is running low. According to humanitarian agencies and medical officials, many patients are needlessly dying because of a lack of timely medical care. A key problem has been the inability to transfer seriously wounded persons out of Gaza. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, at least 413 wounded were in critical condition as of January 11.

'The UN secretary-general's visit is an opportunity to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the need for protecting civilians,' said Roth. 'He needs to lean on all actors, protect civilians, and ensure accountability. Only an impartial international investigation can achieve that.'
Source: AJP

Israel vows to continue war on Gaza

Israel has warned that the onslaught in the Gaza Strip could last for "weeks" as the fourth consecutive day of aerial attacks targeted several Hamas government buildings.

Around 350 people have been killed, many of them civilians, and local hospitals have warned they are unable to cope with any more casualties.

Palestinian medical workers said at least 10 people had died in the latest raids on Tuesday, with security guards and civilians among those killed.

But Israel said there would be no let up until the threat of Palestinian rockets attacks from the Gaza Strip had been removed.

"There is no room for a ceasefire," Meir Sheetrit, Israel's interior minister, said.

"The government is determined to remove the threat of [rocket] fire on the south.

"Therefore the Israeli army must not stop the operation before breaking the will of Palestinians, of Hamas, to continue to fire at Israel."

Four Israeli citizens have been killed by missiles fired from Palestinian positions since the offensive began on Saturday.

Military preparations

The Israeli army has been massing infantry and armoured forces along the border amid increasing fears that a ground invasion is planned.

Matan Vilnai, Israel's deputy defence minister, said the military "has made preparations for some long weeks of action".

On Monday, areas of the border were declared "closed military zones" and thousands of reservists have been called up by the Israeli military.

Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Gaza City, said that there was little the residents of the strip could do to prepare for any possible ground assault.

"In a city that is so densely-populated, a ground offensive would mean urban warfare, street-to-street fighting ... leaving many Palestinians in the crossfire," he said.

"Unlike other conflict zones where there is the possibility to flee the war zone, Gaza itself has become the war zone. There is nowhere for the population to go, they are in the middle of all these attacks."

Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary-general, has added his voice to calls for an end to the violence.

Speaking at UN headquarters in New York on Monday, he said both sides should end the fighting and said regional powers should do more to help resolve the crisis.

"All this must stop," Ban told a press conference.

"Both Israel and Hamas must halt their acts of violence and take all necessary measures to avoid civilian casualties. A ceasefire must be declared immediately. They must also curb their inflammatory rhetoric."

Hamas blamed

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, said the Israeli offensive was aimed at Hamas and not the Palestinian people, urging civilians to leave for safer places away from places close to Hamas infrastructure.

"We tried to avoid this. You know that Israel accepted the truce that was initiated by the Egyptians in order to create peace and quiet. We adopted the truce. What we got in return? We got in return daily attacks, we got in return smuggling of weapons to Gaza Strip with long-range [capabilities]," she said.

Support for Israel came from the US, with the White House saying Hamas must halt cross-border rocket fire.

"In order for the violence to stop, Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel and agree to respect a sustainable and durable ceasefire," Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman said.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies